Local government should face the challenge of new ideas, says Ben Unsworth of Surrey's innovation lab. Photograph: Carol and Mike Werner/Alamy

Last summer Ben Unsworth and his colleagues at Surrey county council came to David McNulty, the council's chief executive, with a two-page document outlining an idea that they hoped would change the way the council operated.

McNulty had asked staff to devise ways to tackle the challenges ahead: ever-diminishing budgets and increased demand for services. Unsworth and two colleagues, Justin Newman and Dan Shurlock, were about to present what they felt was an exciting new idea.

It was on this day that Shift Surrey – an innovation hub for sharing ideas about how services can meet the needs of people – was born. A year on and co-founder Unsworth is happy about how it has progressed.

He says that services should be designed around people, rather than operational efficiency. "Shift has two headline objects: we are here as a team to help redesign big council services, and also bring about a change in culture." Unsworth says that Shift has encouraged people from all levels of the council to come forward with initiatives.

Unsworth has always been passionate about public services. He joined a local government graduate programme after realising he didn't want to pursue his first choice career in law.

"My dad was in the army and my mum was a nurse. Without sounding too grand, I grew up in a family with quite a strong commitment to public service," he says.

After the graduate programme he worked in Gloucestershire in policy and partnership, and then Sutton as head of engagement and equality. Now he works as a performance and research manager at Surrey.

Unsworth says Shift is working on three projects at the moment; one is about adult social care, designing a way for people to identify their own care needs. Another project is about children's social care, helping care staff deal better with the first 28 days of care planning. And the last is called Patchwork, a web tool that lets practitioners get in touch with colleagues working with their clients. The Shift team consists of three other staff members and a graduate trainee on a six-month placement.

The idea for the innovation lab was formed, says Unsworth, while discussing future challenges with colleagues over a cup of coffee in Dorking. "We looked into innovation labs, ones that work and ones that don't, and came up with two pages for the chief executive."

"We asked David McNulty to take a gamble and try something new. We need to know what skills we have in the organisation and get stuck in. It is good to take a risk, but a calculated one," Unsworth says.

He believes there are not enough people challenging the status quo in local government. "One of the comments David McNulty made was that innovators are often seen as mavericks." McNulty believes that people who challenge the way things are done should not be seen in this way. Innovation should be a normal part of how we work.

He describes what Shift does as teaming up experienced service designers with people from local authorities to work on projects. "Things start with a defining problem and then, from there, we will develop a process that is appropriate for what that service might be."

The research manager says that the cost of setting up something like the innovation lab depends on the resources available. Shift uses resources flexibly, with a contract that allows the team to call upon resources when needed.

But are there any areas in which Shift has not achieved its aims? "I think, if we are honest, we have engaged something in the region of 1,000 people, but Surrey employs 7,500 people. Shift hasn't reached everyone," he says. "Part of challenge we are wrestling with is the impact across our organisation but, saying that, we are only six months old so there is a way to go."

Other councils have adopted similar schemes, Unsworth says, citing Kent with its social innovation lab as an example. However, he says local government is slow to the join the party when it comes to adopting web technology.

Unsworth will leave local government and Shift this month to take up a new post at Socrata, an open data company. He has spent 11 years working for councils and is sad to go. He says that he is leaving for a new challenge and the chance to do things across a bigger playing field.

He says local government needs to design services around users if it is to develop, rather than focusing on how they, the council staff, work. "There needs to be a shift towards what people want. We should start again and design things differently, away from the current paradigm."

Technology has changed the way we live, and people in local government should base decisions on evidence that the new media can provide rather than a hunch or collection of anecdotes, he says.

As for the future of Shift, Unsworth is confident it will carry on under the supervision of his peers. He says that if he could offer advice to others interested in creating something similar it would be that you should always think about what the next smallest thing you can achieve is. He says if he had set himself the target of creating a fully functioning lab to design projects it would have been daunting.

"It's about thinking what is the next most important thing I need to do is, and getting it done so I can keep on moving forward."

• Do you have a story to share for #ourday? On 17 October the Local Government Association will hold a one day Tweetathon to celebrate the work of councils. Email sarah.marsh@theguardian.com

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